Open container adaptor

ABSTRACT

An adaptor for use with an open container, especially paint cans, comprising an annular ring having an apertured groove defined by an inner and an outer wall, and further having a depending flange formed as an extension of said groove whereby the paint brush bristles may be drawn across the groove inner wall for removing excess paint therefrom, the apertures of the groove serving as drain holes to permit excess paint, which has accumulated in the groove by the drawing of the paint brush bristles across said inner wall to drain back into the open paint can.

United States Patent 1 Saunders, Jr.

[ 1 OPEN CONTAINER ADAPTOR [76] Inventor: Harvey F. Saunders, Jr., Route 1,

Box 4, Smithfield, Va. 23430 [22] Filed: Oct. 8,1971

[21] Appl. No.: 187,790

[52] US. Cl. 220/90, 220/4 A [51] Int. Cl B65d 25/00 [58] Field of Search... 220/90, 4 A

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,543,287 11/1970 Henkel 220/90 [451' July 10, 1973 Primary ExaminerSamuel B. Rothberg Assistant Examiner--Allan N. Shoap Atrorneywatson, Cole, Grindle 8; Watson 5 7 ABSTRACT An adaptor for use with an open container, especially paint cans, comprising an annular ring having an apertured groove defined by an inner and an outer wall, and further having a depending flange formed as an extension of said groove whereby the paint brush bristles may be drawn across the groove inner wall for removing excess paint therefrom, the apertures of the groove serving as drain holes to permit excess paint, which has accumulated in the groove by the drawing of the paint brush bristles across said inner wall to drain back into the open paint can.

1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures OPEN CONTAINER ADAPTOR This invention relates generally to an adaptor for use with an open container and more particularly to such an adaptor which permits excess paint to be returned to the paint can after having been removed from the paint brush bristles, in a simple and efficient manner.

Painters have, over the years, experienced problems with excess paint from the bristles of their paint brush remaining in the annular sealing groove provided for the cover of the paint can even aftr attempting to carefully remove the excess paint therefrom. Consequently, when the paint sets up in the sealing groove after the paint lid is sealed in place, it becomes notonly difficult to remove the paint lid but the paint in the sealing groove will tend to be spattered upon closing the lid over the can. Moreover, the excess paint from the bristles of the paint brush ahs has tendency to spill over to the exterior of the paint can when the sealing groove becomes excessively filled. Paint cans having apertured grooves, which may be in addition to a sealing groove, have heretofore been devised to permit the excess paint from the bristles of the paint brush to be drained back into the paint can as the paint brush bristles are drawn across an edge or lip of one of the grooves. The drawbacks in using such cans are that they are expensive to produce because of their involved design, and at the same time, cannot easily be reused so that only cansof paint designed as having such apertureddrain grooves,

may be repurchased thereby drastically limiting the choice of available paints.

An open container or paint canadaptor is therefore set forth herein as having an apertured drain groove of a unique construction, and is adapted to be used any number of times with any type of open container since it is easily portable and is not made integral with the paint can itself. This is the principal object of the present invention.

Another object is to provide such an adaptor which comprises an annularring having an upwardly open groove with apertures therein, the groove beingdefined by an inner wall and an outer wall, and further having a depending flange connected to the bottom of the groove, with the flange located within the inner side of the upper portion of the open container sothat excess paint may bedirected into the container after beingremoved from the paint brush bristles drawn across the upper edge of the inner wall, the apertures of the groove serving as drain holes to permit excess paint, which may have accumulated in the groove by the drawing of the paint brush bristles acrossthe inner wall, todrain backinto the open container.

A. further object of this invention is toprovide such an adaptor wherein the depending flange is connected to the bottom of the groove by means ofa radially extending wall sloping upwardly from thetop edgeofthe flange to the groove bottom.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide such an adaptor wherein the outer annular wall is a vertically upstanding wall and the inner wall slops inwardly and upwardly from the groove bottom, with the apertures being located in the inner wall near its lower edge.

Other objects, advantages andnovel features of the invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the adaptor in accordance with the present invention, shown partly broken away and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the adaptor taken along its major diameter, shown in conjunction with an open paint can depicted in phantom.

Turning now to the drawings wherein like reference characters refer to like and corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown a paint can adaptor in accordance with the present invention comprising an annularring having an upwardly open groove 11 defined by a vertically upstanding outer annular wall 12 and an inner annular wall 13 sloping inwardly and upwardly from the bottom of the groove 11. A plurality of openings 14 are located near the lower edge of the inner wall 13 and a depending annular flange 15 is connected to the bottom of the groove by means of an annular wall 16 which slopes upwardly from the upper edge of flange 15 toward the bottom of groove 11.

The adaptor 10 may therefore be inserted, with its depending flange 15 located within the top of an open container C, shown in phantom in FIG. 2, so that wall 16 rests against the inner edge of the container. In using the adaptor, it can be seen that the painter merely draws his paint brush bristles across the free edge of the inner wall 13 to remove excess paint therefrom which simply drains back into the container C. As is normally the case, however, some portion of this excess paint passes behind the inner wall 13 and into the groove 11.

The openings 14 in the groove 11 will, however, permit such excess paint to drain back into the container as it passes over the sloped wall 16 and depending flange 15.

It can be therefore seen that the sealing grooveG of the paint can C is fully protected and. kept entirely free of any excess paintso that the sealing lid may be conveniently sealed in place and thereafter easily removed without having to be concerned with dried paintaccumulation in the paint can sealing groove or paintbeing spattered during sealing of the lid.

It should be further noted that the lower portion 12a of outer wall 12 extendsdownwardly beyond the bottom of the groove, thereby permitting the adaptor to be more easily and strongly constructed and more conveniently handled.

From the foregoing,it can be seen that anopencontaineradaptor has been devised in a simple, well built,

andeconomical manner, yetis highly effective in maintaining the sealing groove of a paint cam-for example,

completely dry and unobstructed while at the same time permitting the excesspaint from paint brush bristles to bedirected entirely backintothe container..The

adaptor in accordance with the present invention may be reused as often as necessary after simply being washed or rinsed since the openings 14 are designed sufficiently large to permit a slight amountof dry paint practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.

edge of said flange to said groove bottom, said flange adapted to be located within the inner side of the upper portion of the open containenwhereby excess paint may be directed back into the container after being removed from the paint brush bristles drawn across the upper edge of said inner wall, and whereby the apertures of said groove serve as drain holes to permit excess paint, which may have accumulated in said groove by the drawing of said paint brush bristles across the inner wall, to drain back into the open container. 

1. An adaptor for use with an open container, especially paint cans, comprising an annular ring having an upwardly open groove with apertures therein, said groove being defined by an inner annular wall and a vertically upstanding outer annulaR wall, said inner wall sloping inwardly and upwardly from the bottom of said groove and said apertures being located in said inner wall near its lower edge, a depending annular flange connected to the bottom of said groove by means of a radially extending wall sloping upwardly from the top edge of said flange to said groove bottom, said flange adapted to be located within the inner side of the upper portion of the open container, whereby excess paint may be directed back into the container after being removed from the paint brush bristles drawn across the upper edge of said inner wall, and whereby the apertures of said groove serve as drain holes to permit excess paint, which may have accumulated in said groove by the drawing of said paint brush bristles across the inner wall, to drain back into the open container. 